Sam Carter - Silver Horizon (2024) [Hi-Res]

Over his fifteen-year career, Midlands-born guitarist and songwriter Sam Carter has earned a reputation for vivid, heartfelt songwriting and captivating live performances. He is a highly regarded instrumentalist, renowned by many as "the finest English-style fingerpicking guitarist of his generation" (Jon Boden). Sam has appeared on national TV, including Later... with Jools Holland, won a BBC Folk Award, and toured the world, sharing stages with folk's leading lights, including Richard Thompson, Eliza Carthy, Martin Simpson, and Sam Sweeney.

With renowned producer Andy Bell at the helm, Carter began recording Silver Horizon in January 2024 at the remote Red Kite Studios in Wales. Armed with his 1966 Gibson ES125 electric and a collection of effects pedals, Sam cut the core tracks in three days with bassist Ben Nicholls (Seth Lakeman, Nadiene Shah) and drummer Evan Jenkins (Robben Ford, Matt Scholfield) before guitarist Stuart McCallum (The Breath) wove his epic reverb-drenched soundscapes around many of Silver Horizon's songs. Rowan Rheingans (Lady Maisery, The Rheingans Sisters) added backing vocals, bringing a soulful depth to tracks including 'Through The Night', while Ian Stephenson (Kan, Baltic Crossing) contributed measured harmonium, adding texture to tracks such as 'Boxes and Bags'.

The opener and title track 'Silver Horizon' ushers in the album's central theme. "It's a kind of prayer from the perspective of a person at a turning point. They're asking the future--symbolised by the horizon--for the peace and reassurance they know it can't give by its very nature, but they're asking all the same. It's not a concept album strictly, but in each song, the narrator is either just about to or has undergone a major change."

Beginning with Carter's inimitable fingerstyle guitar work before expanding into an epic dream-like soundscape, album closer Sights Beyond the Sky is a space-themed ode to the transformative power of a relationship. "I'm still dealing with themes of love, loss, and change that have been a part of my earlier work, but at the moment, sketching events in an impressionistic way instead of documenting them in detail gives the songs more room to breathe." This seamless blend of the otherworldy with the personal makes Silver Horizon the most remarkable album of Carter's career and looks set to cement his reputation as a standout songwriter of his generation.